This Is... the Orthodox Shelter for the Sick and the Crippled (An Illustrated Report)

It is a mighty humanitarian project, founded by Mrs. Katinko George Siksek of Jerusalem, at Beit Jala, a village near Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Those who take refuge in it are not confined to the Orthodox community, as its name might suggest; rather, this shelter is wide enough for every human being in need of tenderness, with no difference between Muslim and Christian, or between one Christian and another.

The shelter houses within its walls some 48 persons, among them the old, the young, and the child... The old man, whose old age is threatened by melancholy, takes comfort in good company and kind treatment; the young man recovers his hope in the life that has robbed him of his strength, or his money, and finds in the people of the shelter kinsfolk and loving friends... and a small child — and what should the child find but the drop of milk, the precious morsel, and the love which the children of the Arab refugees go seeking in these days and find nowhere but in such great humanitarian institutions as these!?

As for the shelter's society, which manages its affairs, its offices are distributed as follows:—

Mrs. Katinko Siksek: secretary and founder
Adele Rizk Sahla: treasurer

Mrs. Adele Damian Hanania: assistant secretary
Miss Julia Qustandi Baramki: assistant treasurer

with 12 members on the executive committee — and there are members of the working body whose number exceeds 74 ladies and young ladies. The shelter also has a large number of doctors and pharmacies to supply the needs of the sick and their medical relief.

The shelter has a large budget, most of it collected from the donations of charitable people, through the energy of the society's members, who watch over its welfare.

After the recent events in Palestine, the society of the Orthodox Shelter was compelled to enlarge its work, in view of the pressing need; so, besides the shelter at Beit Jala, it opened a maternity home in another building adjoining the shelter, in the service of the mothers who give birth in tents and in unhealthy surroundings... And who is more tender toward a woman than a woman, especially in this sacred stage of her life?!

In the city of Jerusalem the society provides medical treatment for everyone who needs it, and this treatment is entirely free, and has been so since the founding of the shelter — add to this the operations which the society is obliged to have performed at its own expense in the hospitals, whenever the need calls.

And thus we see that the Orthodox Shelter is a women's project, founded by a lady who herself still manages it with love and zeal, aided by a choice company of ladies and young ladies, who thereby carry out the noblest of missions. May God be their help, and prosper the endeavor of them all...